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August was marked by numerous power outages. These were mainly load shedding measures, which inevitably raised many questions among the public. Marie-Line Bassette, regional director of EDF Archipel Guadeloupe, provides some explanations.
“We were in the midst of a major maintenance overhaul for one of the power plant’s most powerful generators, the G7, which produces 8 megawatts,” says Marie-Line Bassette. “We schedule this maintenance outside of the peak season to minimize any impact should problems arise. The goal is to have everything finished before Thanksgiving, so that operations are stabilized. So everything is done over a shorter period, in July and August. When this generator is shut down for several weeks, if another source of power is also offline, it compromises power generation. And if it’s the second-most-powerful engine, that inevitably causes problems.” Well, of course, that’s exactly what happened.
“Not much margin left”
The EDF regional director explains: “We had what’s called an unforeseen event on the G8. A minor incident, but we were forced to shut it down and perform work to get it back online. When you lose two generators producing sixteen megawatts, you immediately don’t have much margin left.” Especially when other problems arise.
New maintenance
“The other older generators, which were installed in the 1980s, produce around 3.1 MW when they’re operating properly,” notes Marie-Line Bassette. “Since they’re aging, some of them have limited capacity. And now we’ve had a string of problems, since in July one of these generators suffered a more serious breakdown. It required the replacement of a part, which has been ordered. There are manufacturing and delivery lead times. When we lose a small unit, there’s no impact. But with a more powerful generator, it’s a different story.”
Mechanics from Saint Martin and Martinique were sent to Saint Barth to assist the local teams in repairing the G8 as quickly as possible. “Now, the G7 needs to undergo maintenance,” the director points out. “We’ll wait ten days to make sure nothing unusual happens after this major maintenance. Then we’ll move on to a second one. Normally, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
Call for Energy Conservation
Nevertheless, Marie-Line Bassette points out that “until the new power plant is built and commissioned—given that consumption is rising every year—the strain on the grid is increasing.” She adds: “The power plant in Public is so small that we can’t bring in additional generation capacity. So we need to conserve energy on the island. An electrical system must maintain a constant balance between generation and consumption. A power plant is sized based on peak demand. However, given the rise in peak demand, the situation is very tight. We don’t implement load shedding for fun. It’s our last resort.”
